Millions on consultants for schools building scheme

Gove said: “In tough economic times it is vital that ministers get good value for taxpayers’ money. But under the Government’s bureaucratic school refurbishment scheme, millions has already been spent on consultants with hardly any improvements actually delivered".

Just a tenth of local authorities – 15 – have had refurbishments carried out or a new school opened under BSF since it was launched in February 2004. Four in ten local authorities are not yet in the programme and many that are have experienced significant delays – over three quarters of the first ‘wave one’ projects.

Gove stressed that we need a Government that is "able to get more for less".

"Ministers have already increased their costing of BSF by £10bn due to their failure to deliver the scheme on time. At a time when family budgets are more stretched than ever, we simply cannot afford this level of mismanagement in Ed Balls’s department."